Monday, November 14, 2011

Cavegirl: Valerie Leon in Carry On Up the Jungle

Usually when we look at a cinematic cavegirl we first examine the cavegirl film she appeared in. However, in the case of Carry On Up the Jungle (1970), it isn't a cavegirl film at all and whilst possibly coming under the Lost World and definitely the Jungle Girl categories it really doesn't justify a seperate entry. We will, therefore, confine ourselves to examining the superlative gorgeousness of Valerie Leon as the leader of a tribe of Amazons.

Briefly, the film tells of an ornithological expedition to Africa financed by Lady Bagley (Joan Sims) to find her husband and son who have been missing in the jungle for years. Accompanied by White Hunter Bill Boosey (Sid James), ornitholigist Professor Inigo Tinkle (Frankie Howard - brilliant) and his assistant Claude Chumley (Kenneth Connor) they get captured by a tribe of cannibals known as the Noshas but are rescued by the women of the Lubby-Dubby tribe from the Lost World of Aphrodisia.

L to R: Howard, Sims, James and Leon

Despite being totally studio bound this is one of the better historical Carry Ons. This was Leon's fourth Carry On and she would go on to make two more.

Born almost exactly 67 years ago on 12th November 1942 she was the daughter of an actress. The twenty year old Valerie was working as a trainee fashion buyer at Harrods when she played truant to attend an audition for the stage production of The Belle of New York. By the following year she was on the West End stage with Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl.

She started to do some small roles on TV (The Saint, The Avengers) and had her first big screen appearance in 1967. The following year she appeared in Carry on up the Khyber (1968), possibly the best of the Carry On films.

For Agent Triple P she is best remembered as the girl in the series of Hai Karate aftershave TV commercials which ran from 1969 until 1975, where, driven wild by the aftershave, she would thrust her impressive cleavage towards the camera. The appearance of a new one would be much discussed at school! The nurse's outfit was a favourite!

Magnificent in Blood from the Mummy's Tomb

Although she would continue to have small roles in the seventies and early eighties, including the James Bond film The Spy who Loved Me (1977) and the "alternative" Sean Connery Bond Never Say Never Again (1982), her crowning cinematic achievement would be her dual roles starring in the Hammer horror Blood from the Mummy's Tomb (1971).

The Lubby-Dubby tribe costumes are obviously modelled on Raquel Welch's fur bikini from One Million Years BC (1966), complete with diagonal strap between top and bottom.

Part of the way through the film she changes to a more typical Lost World queen outfit, sadly, although it is, at least, briefer than her rather too concealing cavegirl outfit which is more a dress than a bikini.

Warning: Naked cavegirls!

A few people have commented that this site has "Adult content" and it is sensible to include a warning. What else people might expect from a website called Cavegirls in Fur Bikinis I really don't know, but consider yourself warned, as some of our cavegirls will be very explicit!

Followers

This is a site which features Hollywood style cavegirls, jungle girls and other women in fur bikini-type outfits. We also occasionally post something on actual prehistoric findings!

If you look at Raquel Welch in seminal cavegirl film, One Million Years BC you will see that she is actually wearing an animal skin, rather than a fur, bikini. I suppose that it might be a fur bikini if the fur was on the outside but I'm sure that wouldn't feel as nice for her. Newspapers and magazines when talking about the film always go on about the fur bikini but it really isn't one. That said the concept has sparked the imagination of many other, er, creative people and some of their output is celebrated here. Whatever, this blog is going to be a random collection of nice pictures of girls in fur/hide bikinis together with some reviews of appropriate cave girl films.

I will also stray into African jungle babes and Lost Worlds if they are wearing appropriate animal skin-type clothes!